Doorway to Heaven
by MJuarin
Summary: The CIS takes its first steps into a larger universe and encounters explorers that are doing the same. However since they're part of the SGC nothing is going to go as planned.
1. Prologue: Status Report

**Author's Note**

If anyone is interested in the Star Wars back story for this feel free to read my story Disunion for it. Everyone in this are pretty much all OC's since I'm not very confident that I can do the real characters justice as anything more than cameos. This is a bit of an anomaly as most of the POV will be from the Stargate side of things starting next chapter.

**Prologue: Status Report**

Onderon's Run was typical of billions of systems filling the Outer Rim. It contained no inhabitable worlds and until recently had not even been graced with a name. If this lonely star and its retinue of ten worlds had been visited in the past it would have been only by the automated mining ships that cycled through the barren systems of galaxy feeding the raw materials that kept galactic civilization running.

For this system that had changed five standard years ago. The Confederacy of Independent Systems had needed a secure research facility with access to abundant raw materials and isolation from the spies and potential victims of accidents that settled worlds had in such abundance and so a system in the galactic backwaters had been chosen and named almost at random. Now the system was filled with droid controlled mining ships steadily dismantling the asteroidal rubble of the system and bringing the raw materials to the orbit of the fifth planet from the star, a large gas giant that was on the border line between being a planet and a star.

There a cluster of impressively sized but clearly prefabricated space stations had been built. From the outside they appeared much the same as any industrial space infrastructure in the galaxy; only the large number of capital ships providing security throughout the system spoke of the importance of this new facility. Fully 40 vessels and their compliments of droid starfighters patrolled Onderon's Run, for while the Confederacy had many larger facilities scattered throughout its territory, none were as important to their future as this one. For here was where the finest minds in the third of the galaxy controlled by the CIS were attempting to tease out the secrets that had set the galaxy aflame 20 years ago during the midst of the Clone Wars. Here was where they would gain the ability to stand against the Galactic Union and Palpatine's Empire or fall forever as a mere footnote of history as they had in the Union's home.

This day there was a new arrival to Onderon's Run. With a brief flash of light one of the new _Skyfury_ cruisers entered the system just outside the defense perimeter as it exited from hyperspace. Resembling one of the original Trade Federation _Lucrehulk_ battleships only considerably thinner in profile and scaled up by a factor of five it was still rare to see these vessels outside of strike wings or the defense groups of major worlds. A quick burst of encoded communications passed between the disk shaped vessel and the space station at the center of the system's facilities and then after receiving a reply a shuttle and its three escorts emerged from the cruiser's forward hangar.

A casual eye would have had difficulty spotting anything out of the ordinary regarding this small convoy of ships that were in use throughout the CIS but if one had known where to look many things would have stood out glaringly. The escorts for one were the latest mark three tri-fighters with engines, shields, and weapons much upgraded from the versions that were introduced during the war. These models had been introduced only a year ago and were still not in wide use outside of elite squadrons. A closer look would have revealed that these particular fighters were upgraded beyond even that; all of the equipment in them was custom made, no expense had been spared to make them as deadly as galactic engineering could. The shuttle itself was clearly a custom model, well armed and with secondary and tertiary shield projectors. Like its escorts this vessel was packed with the best military technology the Confederacy could stuff into its custom hull while still maintaining the semblance of an ordinary shuttle used to ferry important dignitaries everywhere.

All of this bespoke the importance placed on the sole organic occupant of the shuttle by the government of the CIS for he was one of the few minds in the galaxy who had managed to win a battle against the forces of the Galactic Union in anything close to an even fight. The list of defeats and disasters from that war was long stretching from Coruscant to Muunilunst and beyond so if the military wished to keep the victor of Auric Petain and the savior of the council alive even the most miserly Nemoidian accountant would not begrudge the expense. For the passenger on the shuttle was none other than Duke Isidis, Grand Admiral of the Confederacy, and the Commander of the Special Weapons Fleet.

To most humans in the galaxy Duke Isidis looked just like all the other Neimoidians; if pressed to describe him they may have noticed the lack of mottling that showed self-indulgence among most other high ranking Neimoidians or his somewhat smaller than average stature. Those who were attuned to such things may have noticed that unlike many of the mercantile members of his race the duke held himself with a self-assured poise and unflinching bearing that was quite at odds with the stereotypes that followed them around. Very few would have been observant enough to note that beneath his ornate dress uniform Isidis was still near the peak of physical health and conditioning despite being well into middle age which was time when many Neimoidians of his social position began tending towards corpulence. Isidis' outside reflected his inside; he had no time for the indulgences and fripperies that marked so much of the CIS's leadership.

As the shuttle and its escorts passed through the void between the cruiser and space facility the interior was silent aside from the occasional mechanical sound made by the pilot droid as it operated the vessel. Isidis sat in his seat periodically glancing at a data pad that had but one piece of correspondence displayed upon its screen. As the shuttle began its final approach to the facility's main hanger he made a sour face and put the pad down while shaking his head. He glanced outside the ship just in time to see the only new construction that had been begun since the last time he was here a scant few weeks ago.

Of course that time frame was part of the reason he was feeling somewhat nonplussed at the moment, Isidis considered as the shuttle settled into place within the cavernous hanger. With the vessel settled into place, but before the pilot could even inform him of this fact, the duke was already standing though he had to take a moment to adjust the elements of his elaborate uniform to get them back into the proper order. Personally he would have preferred something more plain, but the people in charge of such things wanted the CIS to be a counterweight to the drab austerity of both the former Republic and the Galactic Union and this was one place where he was willing to put his utilitarian leanings aside to make the civilians happy.

Isidis strode to the rear of the shuttle and waited for its ramp to lower before continuing forward at a brisk pace. He noted as he reached the bottom of the ramp that the bay was filled with military droids arranged in parade ground formation serving as a sort of honor guard on either side of a clear space leading back towards the turbolifts. Nearest to him were ranks of the heavily armored B2 droids that reminded him of bipedal beetles, while behind them were their significantly more humanoid replacements the B5s. Behind them were larger support droids such as droidekas and the newer scarabs, and behind them were even a few Vulture 2's in their ground configuration. All in all it was a rather impressive sight that unfortunately Isidis had seen very recently in this very spot. The fact that such a display had been put together despite the short notice he had given for his arrival did not bode well for this visit.

The duke rapidly moved down the open aisle between the rigidly standing droids towards the only other organic being in the room other than a few Geonosians who seemed to be working on some wiring on the rear wall. This person doing their best to stand at attention despite a clear lack of military training was the administrator of the project Chi Rai. She was a Gossam who had come to Isidis' attention shortly after the war due to her success is leading the team that had worked out the theoretical underpinnings of the Galactic Union's gravity well projectors. He had recruited her to lead this project based off of her success in that, but as he rapidly approached the small reptilian administrator in her long robes trying to meet his eye despite being little more than half his height he sincerely hoped he had not made a mistake. Recruiting a new leader would take time the CIS could not afford.

"Remind me what you told me when I was here last," Isidis said as he reached her. She had been clearly about to say something, but he did not even slow down forcing here to scramble into to motion and to keep up with his longer legs.

Chi Rai had probably been about to give a rehearsed welcoming speech and it was obvious that it was taking some effort for her to get her mind into a different track.

"I said a great many things, sir…your grace," she managed.

Isidis gave her a look. "Specifically the time frame you gave me for preliminary results."

"I told you it would be at least a year before we had anything, but…"

"A year," the duke repeated as they reached the waiting turbolift, "and all of my experts backed that estimate up or said it was being optimistic. Even the Empire is at least that far away and they have that mystic weirdness helping them out." Isidis had never particularly liked or trusted the Jedi and their strange ways; the revelations that the leader of the Republic, and now Empire, was a member of some splinter faction of theirs confirmed a number of his half felt biases.

"So tell me," he continued as the nervous administrator activated the lift by waving her secure datapad over the control panel, "Why you decided to inform me of a major breakthrough after only three weeks."

Gossam faces were not normally very expressive but the confusion on Chi Rai's was clearly apparent.

"Because we had a major breakthrough," she said slowly, almost making the statement a question.

Isidis ran his palm over his face. "Look, I know that some people in the command structure need their subordinates to make major breakthroughs every two weeks according to the schedule drawn up at the start of the project. However I distinctly remember telling you that all I cared about were results. I promised you that you would have all the resources you could need, so long as you could show you weren't wasting them."

She was about to speak but Isidis forestalled it with a gesture. "I am willing to give you the chance to show that you are not wasting my time with butt-covering foolishness; but if you are bear in mind I can find someone else to fill your position. Count Sollas perhaps."

With this the turbolift slowed to a stop and opened to reveal a large conference room. A table with built in holographic projectors dominated the center of the room in much the same way that a window overlooking what appeared to be an insane tangle of wires and machinery dominated the far wall. The table was liberally strewn with datapads and small holographic schematics that projected the plans for any number of things that Isidis did not have the training to decipher. Aside from the two entering from the turbolift and a Geonosian who by the gear he was wearing was an engineer of some sort the room was deserted.

"I assure you that will not be necessary," Chi Rai said hurriedly as she rushed into the room. The diminutive administrator made a quick gesture to the Geonosian who activated the central holographic projector. An enormous mass of equations and graphs bending through space in ways that did not seem to quite fit within the real universe filled the space over the table. Isidis halted at the end of the table and crossed his arms.

"I'll skip most of the technical details since I know you don't have the time to get into them right now," the Gossam began as she hurriedly tapped at the datapad causing whole blocks of equations to vanish. "Perhaps you recall how we were preparing the preliminary breaching activities?"

"Yes, you mentioned you would be increasing the power gradually. Hence the year long timeframe and my suspicion of your supposedly rapid results."

Chi Rai commenced a rapid flurry of tapping on the datapad as she apparently searched for something.

"That is correct. We needed to take small steps when attempting to breach the dimensional barriers to prevent catastrophic issues from coming up. We wouldn't want to transition the universe to a lower phase state or cause complete protonic reversal after all."

She seemed to want a response so Isidis favored her with a small nod despite not really knowing what the outcomes of what she was talking about actually meant.

"Ah here we are," she said as a recording sprang into view above the table. "The thing is, that on our third iteration we achieved a stable connection."

The recording showed a room filled with a tangle of machinery that was immediately recognizable as the one visible through the conference room's window. Isidis could see the machinery activating as it pushed energy through the specialized devices and focused it on a point near the middle of the room. The casual voice of a technician read out the power drain and a few other pertinent figures. He heard someone else give the order to power the devices down, either a Geonosian or someone speaking their language for some reason, and the worried response form the first technician when it clearly did not work and an energetic reaction began to build in space between the pieces of focusing machinery.

The projection was suddenly filled with a bright white light as the panicked voices of the technicians rose into shouts. Then the light faded revealing a glimmering circle of what looked like nothing so much as rippling water levitating in the midst of the machinery where the reaction had been building mere moments before.

Isidis uncrossed his arms and leaned forward. "Is that…?" he began.

"A wormhole, yes."

"And how long…?"

"38 minutes," Chi Rai said as her body language indicated what would have been a smile on a human.

"And that's unusual?" Isidis was fairly certain what the response to this would be.

At this the Geonosian broke in. "You could say that. Getting a connection at all with such a low power input is strange enough," at this Isidis had to shake his head; if he had heard the recording properly they had been dumping enough energy into the machines to run a warship the size of the _Malevolence_. "But to get a stable connection, let alone one that size is insane."

"Admiral this is Dagan, the head of engineering for this particular part of the project," Chi Rai said.

"Of course that's not even the best part," the Geonosian continued is his language making Isidis glad he had bothered to learn it. Getting a translator droid in here would have been a pain. "After it shut down we tried to replicate the experiment. You'll never guess what happened."

"Nothing," Isidis ventured.

"Based on what we expected to happen the first time that would have made sense," Chi Rai said. "Instead we got a connection again. It was the same size and lasted just as long."

"I'm not sure I understand. This would seem to mean that this is much easier than even the most optimistic estimates proposed."

Dagan shook his head. "That's not it. The problem is it's always the same size and always appears at the same energy threshold. According to intel we have regarding both the Empire's efforts and what the Union built pumping more energy in should get a larger connection; all it does here is make it last longer. Of course that's also leaving out the fact that we got it with two orders of magnitude less energy than we should have."

"I take it you have some theories then."

"Actually we didn't," Chi Rai admitted. Isidis carefully noted the use of the past tense in this assessment. "We had almost exactly what we wanted on demand and with greater ease than even the giddiest neophyte would have predicted. Unfortunately all the math, previous experiments, and basic logic said that it could not be."

"After all," Dagan said, "If it was that easy during Auric Petain the Great Weapon should have blasted a hole into another universe and everyone would have noticed that."

"That's why we decided to do something a little reckless," Chi Rai said. "We sent some droids through since we certainly were not going to get anywhere just looking at the thing. After all it was a stable connection to somewhere and that's what droids are for."

"Just sending them through gave us some data, though all of it was weird." The Geonosian said.

"Weird in what way?"

"This thing acts nothing like the Union's wormhole. For one thing it does not like having things be only part way through."

"When we had a droid extend a probe into it the whole thing was yanked through," Chi Rai elaborated. "It shut down early and cut the cable when we sent something through tethered with a communication cable."

"Though that little precaution turned out to be unnecessary," Dagan added. "Though the strange thing is other than transmissions for some reason the connection is only one way."

"How could you possibly have determined that?" Isidis asked. This was becoming far more complex than he preferred. With all the information acquired on the Union's portal everyone involved in this project had been certain that replicating that technology would have been merely an engineering challenge, but now it was increasingly sounding like no one even had a clue about the underlying science at all. Granted it seemed to have worked out beneficially for the Confederacy this time but Isidis was not one to rely on good luck for anything this important.

"The first droid with the probe," Dagan responded. "After it was pulled through we got transmissions from it. It was intact and apparently on a planetary surface so we told it to come back. Unfortunately all we got back was a brief energy surge that was consistent with the thing being disintegrated."

"For whatever reason only energy can travel both ways," Chi Rai said. "Matter only goes one way."

"So it's completely useless." Isidis said. "We need the resources and potential allies on the other side, otherwise the Union will overwhelm us when they finish unifying their home galaxy. All this is good for is as a way to flee if nothing can ever come back from there."

"No, no, that's not the case," Chi Rai said hurriedly. "We would not have called you in so quickly if we were just giving up. Your analysis would be accurate except for what we found on the other side."

"The third droid we sent through was a probe droid and this is what it saw." She pressed something on the datapad and the image of the test chamber vanished to be replaced with a scene from a planetary surface rendered in three dimensions.

Primarily it seemed to show a group of old stone ruins of little distinction. The stones were monolithic, but from the level weathering they had been exposed to the elements for many centuries at least. The ground was covered in tall grassy cover and in the sheltered spots between the large stones shrubby trees were growing. The few that had sprouted in the open were wind twisted, all bending in the same direction shaking in a steady breeze that had continued throughout the recording.

These details were noted by the duke and filed away but there was one thing amongst the obviously low technology ruins that stood out like a battleship amongst frigates. In a central place of pride amid the ruins was a ring of clearly manufactured metal though he suspected the slight lean away from vertical had happened after the ruins had been abandoned. The strange rippling surface of the wormhole filled the interior precisely and the outer edges were divided into a number of segments each of which was marked by a glyphic symbol. Nine triangular devices were equally placed around the outside and some sort of pedestal was located in front of the slightly leaning circle, but it was the ring itself which had Isidis' attention. He had seen something like that once before though only in a now half-forgotten lecture at the academy.

"The Gree," he said.

"Ah you're familiar with those recluses," Dagan said. 'That makes this a great deal easier to explain."

"I don't think anyone is truly familiar with them, but I know a hypergate when I see it."

"I'm not surprised," Chi Rai answered. "Most courses covering the history of hyperdrive mention Gree hypergates and how much more restrictive they are compared with actual spaceships. However seeing this answered most of our questions with regards to our wormhole problems."

"These things," Dagan said gesturing at the ring, "must be attuned to spatial disturbances in order to function. So when we started poking a hole into their universe the machinery that runs the device must have detected it and for lack of a better metaphor reached out and completed the connection from that side. We basically tapped into someone else's com lines by accident while messing around with our own comlink."

"And," Chi Rai said hastily, "once we get a good analysis of that hypergate we can approximate one on this side and get a two way connection going once we replicate all this," she gestured at the equipment visible through the window of the conference room, "which shouldn't be that difficult. If those ruins say anything about who built the thing it should be child's play. The connection will be a bit small but it should be a start."

Silence filled the room as the two other occupants looked hopefully at Isidis as his mind whirled with thoughts. Already he was evaluating plans and considering potential pitfalls and opportunities.

"Proceed with your plans for exploration," he said, "though we need you to continue working on both a larger connection and continuing with the original plan as well. Even a two way connection is not good enough in the long run if all we can send are Starfighters through. And we still will need a way to connect to multiple universes in the long run."

"Of course sir," Chi Rai said nodding.

Isidis stood for a few more moments gazing at the hologram and specifically the ring and the pedestal in front of it.

"If you really can get that two way connection working I'm going to need to attach some actual soldiers to this project too," he said after a moment of thought. "If that thing is anything like a hypergate there must be something on the other side, and until we can send real starships through that will be the only way to scout out the area. We're going to need some explorers."


	2. Chapter 1: Reconnaissance

**Chapter 1: Reconnaissance**

Stuart Miller had been having an extremely strange life recently, especially when compared with where he had thought it would have gone. When he had graduated from college with a degree in anthropology he had been pleasantly surprised that he had managed to wrangle a position and a grant even if it had been overseas in the back end of Turkey, he knew too many of his class mates that had ended up behind a desk sorting papers for a living. He had been a bit less pleased when a year later as the resident foreigner he had been roped into helping the Kurdish group he had been studying negotiate with the Turkish and American military over a planned airbase expansion in the area. Still things had gone rather well everything considered and he had finished that experience on good terms with both the locals and the military.

He knew enough about how you got noticed amongst the security conscious types to not be too surprised when shortly afterwards the airforce offered him a position as a civilian contractor under words to the effect that he would be expected to perform similar duties to what he had done in Turkey. The amount of background screening they had put him through was nothing strange, though he had felt at the time it was rather unnecessary since they had trusted him enough to make deals before. What had first stood out as odd for Stuart was some of the aspects of his background the interviewers had focused on. While asking him about his linguistics skills was not too odd, he was not sure why being able to puzzle out some Akkadian was considered a bonus or why his interest in the ancient Near East had caused the captain interviewing him to nod happily at his admission of this fact.

No, the strangeness had begun when six months after the process had begun he and a number of other civilians had met with a severe looking officer who had informed them that what they were about to be told was so classified that even if they declined the positions that were about to be offered they would still be connected to the program for life so if anyone wanted to leave now was the time. Well, after that who could say no, even when the officer had spun a tale of wormholes, spaceships, and aliens. Some of the gathered people had laughed at that, and while Stuart had not been one of them he had been thinking of scenes from any number of silly movies.

Things had become a bit more serious when they had seen the demonstration of some of the technology that had been recovered as a part of this Stargate program including a real life laser gun (even if it looked more like a staff). As far as Stuart knew no one had declined the positions being offered. He couldn't speak for any of them but being able to travel to actual alien worlds trumped the potential downsides of working with the military and the level of secrecy that they were being subjected to.

This goal was what got him through the basic military training he had been given which was perhaps the hardest thing he had ever done in his life; even though he knew he was still nowhere near as good as the career soldiers he would be working with at least he would not be a complete load on them if something went wrong. It had been worth it though since now he had been to another planet three times now (even if it was only as part of training and getting to know the team he would be a part of). Now he was waiting with the three other members of his team in the concrete lined room deep under a mountain for their first real mission to begin. Once the machine that had been sent through the shimmering portal verified that the far side was still safe they would be passing through. He almost could not believe it, he was going to explore a whole new world like any number of people from the science fiction novels he had devoured as a kid had done.

Well, not quite exactly the same, most of those fictional stories had been purely scientific affairs and the military was definitely in charge of this operation. Not to mention that the planet they were going to be traveling to was not only inhabited, but it was by humans no less (Stuart had been rather shocked to discover that the whole ancient astronauts theory had actually been true). It turned out that so far the aliens mostly lived inside people and flew around pretending to be gods of the least congenial sort and who wanted to enslave the people of Earth which was a bit of a letdown compared with what might have been. Though that may be about to change; there had been reports of inhuman armored figures travelling through the fringes of the Goa'uld stargate network that had come to blows with their forces. The planet they were about to travel to had been the source of the most recent report of these mysterious figures and the inaugural mission of SG-14 was to see what they could find out.

Stuart still had not gotten a good chance to get to know the others on the team yet. While they had gone on some training missions together and at least knew the basic details concerning one another they hadn't really had much of a chance to interact outside of official situations yet. Their commander, Captain Styles, played things pretty close so far as Stuart could tell. The captain's appearance and bearing were close to exactly what Stuart would have picked to serve as an example of career military, but in his experience most officers tried to project that look. Still he was considerably more closed off than most of the men he had worked with in Turkey.

Styles seemed to know the third man on the team, Lieutenant Kirkwall, at least enough for his professional mien to soften a little bit; they had even cracked a few jokes every so often until the Captain's reserve had come crashing back down and he had become all business again. Kirkwall was a lot more outgoing than his commander though so far all Stuart knew about him came from the drinks they had shared when training had completed.

The odd woman out amongst the soldiers was Lieutenant Lopez, though it wasn't because of her gender. Unlike the other two she had not been a pilot, she had been part of the technical crew and was supposed to serve the same purpose for this team. Outside of the official training exercises the team hadn't seen very much of her though apparently that was because she was busy trying to bring herself up to speed on the alien technology they might be encountering in the field. Just the basic information Stuart had been given was daunting enough so he did not begrudge her the time she was spending, especially since judging from what he had read about previous missions it would probably keep them alive someday.

"The MALP confirms that the area is free of hostiles. SG-14 you are good to go," the voice of the gate controller said over the intercom interrupting Stuart's thoughts.

"Move out," Styles ordered as he began striding forward toward the stargate.

He and Kirkwall were in the lead with Stuart and Lopez in the rear. Stuart could not quite keep his nerves in check as he approached the gate and saw the first two disappear into its glowing surface. While he had passed through it several times now his subconscious mind still could not stop telling him that there was something ineffably wrong with what looked like a vertical wall of rippling water that completely defied what all of his personal experience said should happen to it. Still he only hesitated a moment before stepping in, though he did hold his breath just before contact.

The sensations of passing through the gate were still just as bad as Stuart had remembered from his training runs combining the gyrations of a roller coaster designed by a madman with the sensations of different parts of his body being in all the wrong places at once. He counted himself fortunate as he emerged from the far side with only a small stumble and mild nausea compared with the face-plant and vomiting that had resulted from his first passage. He had only been slightly reassured when he had been told that most people had similar reactions their first time.

Stuart took the opportunity to look at his surroundings as the team stepped away from the gate and it closed behind them. This gate opened into a wide valley whose flat floor was bounded by steep mountains rising rapidly from its edges about a mile to either side of the gate and half that behind it. The valley itself was largely grass covered with scattered clusters of what looked like aspen and beech trees while the mountains themselves were covered in dense stands of pines except for a taller pointed one a few miles further down the valley whose upper slopes were bare. A well-worn dirt road lead down the valley from the stargate towards where Stuart knew the closest settlement was.

And thinking of that town, Stuart spotted their welcoming committee waiting for the team by the DHD pedestal. They had sent two people, one of them tall and fairly imposing wearing what looked like a boiled leather breastplate and glowering at pretty much everything while conspicuously keeping his hands well away from the sheathed short sword at his side. The other man was somewhat smaller in stature but wearing reasonably ornate robes that based on the reports from the first SG team to visit this world were the symbol of office of the local leaders and smiling broadly at the new arrivals. Likely they were an official from the town and their escort.

His supposition seemed confirmed when the robed man stepped forward and raised his hand in greeting while the taller man hung back and glared at the back of the greeter's head.

"I welcome the representatives of the Tau'ri back to our humble world in the name of Headman Falthis and hope that we can assist in any way that we can," he said in Goa'uld which served as the lingua franca for most of the galaxy. At least that was the closest approximation to what he said that Stuart could come up with, there had been a number of verbal flourishes thrown in that his crash course in the language had not covered but he was pretty sure he got the gist of what had been said.

"Good to be here," Styles replied in the same language. "Did your boss tell you why we're here?" While he was speaking Lopez was redialing the gate in order to send the boxy MALP back through the gate and inform control back on Earth that they had successfully arrived.

"The Headman told us that you were expressing interest in the strange visitors that were here a short time ago."

"That's true, while we wait," the captain said as the machine slowly trundled its way back to the gate, "do you think you could tell us something about them? We didn't get very much information beyond that they were here recently."

Both the official and his guard looked uncomfortable at this. "It really would not be my place to say, the Headman wouldn't want me stepping on his duties. All I can say is it their timing was unfortunate."

"Unfortunate?" Stuart asked.

"They arrived shortly before Lord Enki's annual visit and collection of tribute. We tried to help them get out but his forces caught them in the open and smote them down before they could reach the safety of the Chappa'ai," the official said sadly.

"You can almost see it from here," the soldier added, "We will be passing nearby on the way to the town."

"We still haven't had time to give them rites since Enki's forces wouldn't let us while he was here and since then, well there's something off about the bodies and no one wants to approach."

"Give me a moment to talk with my men," Styles said as he gestured for the other three to gather around.

"So Enki, who is that aside from the local Goa'uld of course?" he asked when they had.

"He's the Sumerian god of rivers and craftsmen. He was pretty important to their creation myth and a fairly major god though there's no telling how much of that might apply to this one," Stuart answered.

"Anyone find it a little odd that this Enki showed up at the same time as these other guys?" Kirkwall asked.

"Not really," Styles said while Lopez shook her head. "They seemed to imply that he visits here on a regular basis and these guys picked the wrong time to come. That matches up what SG-4 reported when they made contact six months ago; they said the Goa'uld who ran the place hadn't been by for a little while and they weren't expecting him for several months. It's part of the reason why command felt it was safe to maintain semi-regular contact with these people."

"In that case, I know it sounds ghoulish, but we should look at where they were killed," Lopez said. "They may have left some stuff that would tell us something about them."

"Good thinking Lieutenant," Styles said. He turned back to the waiting men from the town.

"Do you think we can swing by where that happened, we might want to pay our respects?"

"I'm sure you wouldn't want to see that, it's very disturbing. Also the Headman…"

"Is not expecting them for quite some time," the soldier interrupted.

"Dagir, you know what he said about bringing them to him immediately."

"He won't care, besides isn't it important that we help our new friends out? We wouldn't want them to get suspicious of us and think we're trying to hide something from them," he said pointedly. At this Stuart had to glance at the others. It was pretty odd for a group meeting outsiders like this to publically air disagreements like that.

The official sighed. "I suppose not. Good relations with the Tau'ri and other outsiders are important to the Headman. We can pass by, but let's not spend too much time there, I don't like that place."

With that he gestured invitingly to the SG team and began to walk down the path occasionally pointing out thing's he felt worthy of note and chattering on about all the ways everyone would soon be very close friends indeed. Captain Styles as their leader was the target of much of this and spent most of the time scanning their surroundings while giving the impression that he was paying attention to the official's speech. Lopez was making sure that the connection between the equipment she had placed near the gate and her portable equipment was working properly, and from the muttered curses Stuart could hear the mountains were definitely causing some king of interference. That just left him and Kirkwall.

"So," Kirkwall asked after some time, "This Enki guy, you said he's Sumerian?'

"Yeah."

"So that's like really old stuff; ziggurats and stuff like that, right?"

"Pretty much. They were the first real civilization on Earth."

"But aren't the snakes usually Egyptian? I mean if their leader started everything in Egypt how could there be even older ones somewhere else?"

"The theory is they just took over roles that people had already created, kind of like how in a movie someone shows up to some jungle tribe who starts thinking they're a god because they have a lighter and they just go with it."

"Come on, I know I don't have a degree saying that I'm an expert in how people think, but even I know all that stuff's mostly just racist crap made up by people who don't know any better."

"Ah, but the Goa'uld have some really nice lighters. The other possibility is that the source we got that from was wrong. Supposedly Ra is the one who said it and I don't think he'd admit he wasn't always the big dog. Maybe the Sumerian Goa'uld were first and the Egyptian ones took power from them. If we stop to have a friendly chat with Enki we can always ask him."

"I think I'll hold off on that. They don't seem to be the sort to have chats."

They both chuckled at the thought of having a relaxed conversation with one of the megalomaniacal aliens that ruled so much of the galaxy. Maybe as part of a calm tea ceremony Stuart considered, with an assortment of tasty snacks. This ridiculous thought passing through his head was interrupted by the two locals abruptly coming to a halt in the path ahead.

"We're here," Dagir the military man said.

"It's just over there," the official added gesturing at a depression on the other side of a small copse of trees. Flowing water could faintly be heard. "They were following the stream there back to the gate rather than taking the road for some reason."

"Don't take too long," he continued giving a shudder. "I don't like this place, there's been too much death here." In response to this statement from the official Dagir's eyes narrowed as gave an angry glare in the direction indicated.

"All right let's check this out," Styles ordered.

"You two," he continued while indicating Stuart and Lopez, "Will search the remains, focus on technology and anything that might help us identify them. Kirkwall and I will keep watch and see what we can find out tactically about how our mystery visitors fought."

"What if they were completely surprised?" Stuart felt he had to ask.

"That will tell us something too, even if it's that they should have been paying more attention to what was going on around them."

It did not take long to reach the site, the path was largely paralleling the stream and had simply taken the opportunity at this location to cut off a meander. The stream itself was running through some sunken banks here that were several feet high and prevented the team from getting a good look until they were right upon it and the moderately thick tree growth did not improve the visibility either.

Stuart's first thought on seeing the site was a quick desire to be ill; his first impression was that dozens of bodies were scattered across the shallow gravelly bed of the stream, some of them seemingly dismembered with limbs completely separated from the torsos. However before his stomach could really begin churning his mind noticed something very odd about the site of this massacre.

"No blood," Lopez said, articulating what Stuart had just spotted. Considering the seeming carnage of the scene there should have been some gore splashed around. Even the presence of the stream could not explain that lack as half of the site was a dry gravel bar and still should have had telltale blood on it, the stream was not flowing nearly enough to have washed it all away.

"Do Goa'uld weapons seal the wounds they make; cauterize them?" he asked as they slid down the bank landing in the ankle deep stream. He was working hard to keep his mind firmly in analytical mode lest he lose his lunch.

"Sometimes, but if a staff weapon blows off an arm it's not going to be clean like this." She crouched down to examine something in the water. "Now that is interesting, take a look at this."

Stuart stepped around her and his stomach almost did a flip as he saw her lifting up one of the severed arms to examine it. He abruptly settled as he got a better look at the disembodied extremity. It was powerfully built with three fingers and what appeared to be a double barreled gun built into a gauntlet. The entire arm was armored in metallic plates and emerging from where it presumably should have connected to its body were a cluster of burnt looking wires and some sheared metal rods with no organic aspects whatsoever.

"It's mechanical?" he asked.

"Looks that way, either they were cyborgs or these are robots."

"Robots would explain the lack of blood," Stuart suggested. He really hoped the remains were all robots; intellectually he had known that at some point he would encounter death doing this. The reports by the first SG teams left no doubt as to what was going on out in the larger galaxy. Still, he found that he was really hoping it would not be today.

"Let's take a look then, check for sure," Lopez said as she moved towards the larger portion of the (hopefully) robotic massacre.

A quick examination was enough to tell him that they were all indeed machines though there did seem to be parts from two different types. Both types were bipedal with three fingered hands and roughly cylindrical heads but other than that commonality they were quite different. The most common machine, as best as Stuart could tell, was about seven feet tall and extremely sturdily built. Its legs were massive and its torso thickly covered in metallic plating with its neckless head emerging from the front of the upper portion of the torso. One of these was also the owner of the arm with the built in gun as the somewhat more intact specimens that had merely been disabled due to body hits rather than completely dismembered showed.

The other, less common type were considerably more slender, though this was only relative; rather than being built like a tree trunk they merely had the builds of linebackers. Overall they were largely humanoid, if it wasn't for the clearly artificial head and the scorched wiring that protruded from the holes presumably caused by staff blasts Stuart would have mistaken them for people wearing a dull metallic armor that covered their entire bodies. Also unlike the larger machines their weapons appeared to be conventionally shaped guns that had dropped from the fingers of their wielders when they had been disabled.

"This is definitely not Goa'uld tech," Lopez said after a few minutes of examining the interior of one of the larger machine's torso where several weapon blasts had opened its inner workings to the air. "I can't find any of their standard hallmarks here or a single control crystal."

"Maybe one of them got creative."

"Not likely, all their tech has the same base and it hasn't changed for millennia. Some of this stuff," she said while gesturing at the machines, "or least the parts of it I think I can recognize looks more like what we might build. At least after a few hundred more years. I can't find anything that looks like a computer to run these robots for instance."

"Maybe they're drones being operated from somewhere else remotely."

"Maybe, but I don't think so. How would they keep transmitting control signals through a closed stargate? I think they are robots, just ones that are advanced enough that I don't know what to look for to find their CPUs."

Stuart thought about this as Lopez went back to examining the mechanical remnants, this time taking care to examine one of the dropped guns. Were these explorers from a race of machine creatures or had they just used advanced technology to create something akin to a super-MALP that could perform the duties of an SG team? Really there were any number of possibilities.

As he glanced around Stuart found he could get a general idea of what had happened here from observing the remains of the machines and the fused holes in the ground where staff blasts had struck. Even to his inexperienced eye this place had been a good spot for an ambush with the high stream banks and trees growing right up to the edge of them blocking the view from anyone in the water. He knew he wouldn't have liked to be out in the open with energy flying in from either side. Though from the shattered remains of several of the trees that appeared as though their trunks had exploded from the inside he suspected that machines had managed to return fire at least.

He noticed that Kirkwall at least might have had the same thought since he was beckoning the captain over to look at some of them. Stuart's attention had briefly focused on them so he almost ended up kicking something round and metallic that was in his path out of the way before he remembered where he was and what they were doing here. Upon a quick examination he called Lopez over since the grapefruit sized object was not anything like the rest of the extremely functional technology scattered around the river bed. For one thing it seemed to be decorated with a number of abstract geometric shapes and he had not seen anything that looked like decoration on anything else here.

"That is a good find," Lopez said after he had told her about it. He noted that she had picked up a pair of the alien guns and was carrying them rather gingerly. "And you're right, that doesn't belong with our mystery machines. It's a Goa'uld stun grenade."

"Why would they use a stun grenade on robots? Unless it works on robots."

"I'm pretty sure they don't, though it's not like anyone has tried that I know of. And Jaffa are well enough trained to not use something they know won't work, especially since these are fairly rare from what I've heard and not reusable."

"So there might have been some non-robots with this group then?"

"That's a distinct possibility. It should be something we ask out hosts about once we get a chance to at any rate. Come on, I think I've seen everything I can without a full technical crew. Grab that gun arm we found first and put it in your pack, the boys back at base will want something to poke at."

Stuart complied with her request and joined Lopez in scrambling out of the gully to rejoin the others which was significantly more difficult than getting into the river bed had been.

"Robots, sir," she said simply upon rejoining the commander. "Though there may have been some people with them; the Jaffa used a stun grenade down there."

"Robots, really? That's a new one," He replied evenly. "It looks like Enki's Jaffa set up a pretty good ambush here. From the return fire they were on both sides of the stream and those guys down there didn't get too many shots off."

"The Jaffa policed any casualties they had but I think they lost at least one." At this Kirkwall held up a piece of metal he had been holding. It looked like the front half of one of the Jaffa's collapsible helmets, however instead of the visage of an animal this one was the impassive face of a man wearing a cylindrical hat and an extravagantly curled beard depicted in metal. The rear half was missing and judging by the scorch marks and melting of the metal its wearer had not survived its removal.

"It looks a bit like some of the wall carvings in Sumerian palaces," Stuart offered.

"I suppose they can't all be animals, at least we know what to look for if we run into Enki in the future," Styles said. "Let's rejoin our guides and see what their Headman has to say about all this."

As they returned to the two locals the official's face fell when he spotted the end of the gun arm protruding from Stuart's pack and he opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, probably in protest. He stopped however when Dagir gave him a nudge and whispered something to him that the team could not make out.

"I hope you have satisfied your curiosity?" he asked with a glum tone in his voice. Then not even waiting for a response he continued, "Let's get you back to town."

The rest of the journey was rather quiet, the official's well of talk had seemingly dried up and the occasional glances he made back towards the team were beginning to make Stuart nervous. He really hoped that he hadn't inadvertently sabotaged their chance to make a good first impression by breaking some major taboo, but Dagir had seemed fine with their request to search the river bed. Unless the soldier was trying to sabotage them and if that was the case that just opened up a huge can of worms.

If anyone else was having second thoughts they were keeping them to themselves. Fortunately it was not that much longer before they rounded a low rocky spur from the mountains and came into sight of the local town. Stuart had studied the pictures the first team had taken of the place several months ago when they had made first contact so it was not a complete surprise, however the reality made a much more significant impression.

From afar the town appeared to be picturesque, appearing like any number of tourist oriented foreign villages that graced the fronts of any number of postcards. The town was surrounded with golden fields of grain on three sides with a sturdy stone windmill standing on a small hill. The town itself was constructed of rather boxy buildings covered in almost blindingly white plaster and roofed in red tiles that were almost stacked on top of each other. A blue tiled gate provided entrance to the city and a hulking ziggurat dominated the far side of the large town as the sunlight glinted off metal that looked suspiciously like gold near the structure's apex.

While the town itself looked rather impressive, especially to someone who had studied its antecedents back on Earth, its smell was another matter entirely. Even from the distance where they had first spotted it the complex, and unpleasant, mixture of odors emanating from a large collection of people who had no sewers or concepts of modern hygiene all baking in the bright sunlight was rather distinctive. Actually being in the midst of it would be something Stuart was not going to relish; even the most rustic places he had visited previously had contained at least basic sewers. Still, if stink was all he would have to deal with on his first real voyage through the stargate he would count himself lucky. After all talking with the Headman of this town would not be that bad surely?

**Author's Note: **Things will start to pick up next chapter, this one primarily serves to introduce the characters from Earth. As for the elephant in the room, they will not recognize the CIS stuff as being from Star Wars since that would just open up a huge can of worms that would serve only to derail the plot. Officially this Stargate universe has none of the prequel movies and since this Star Wars universe in this story is an AU the events of the movies won't happen anyway (and for what it's worth in the timeline the Galactic Union came from the movies are only surprisingly similar to historic events but not completely the same).


	3. Chapter 2: Diversion

**Chapter 2: Diversion**

Stuart was wrong, the meeting with the Headman was terrible. The man, who seemed to have no name as far he could tell simply referring to himself as the Headman, had launched into a rambling almost incoherent series of speeches when SG-14 had been escorted into his presence. He had been coldly rude to Lopez when she had attempted to talk and he had refused to discuss matters of importance with mere followers as he had said when Kirkwall had spoken up and Stuart had tried diplomatically to get the conversation back on track. Styles had managed to provide a seemingly sympathetic ear to the man's prattling with only a small occasional wince betraying his true feelings when the Headman moved off on yet another verbal tangent or gave another vague response to one of his queries. Honestly if it had been any other reason why they were here Stuart suspected that they would probably have made polite excuses and left over an hour ago and tried to investigate on their own.

This was not to say that they had not learned anything at all (though it certainly felt like that assessment was fairly close). As they had passed through the town their official guide had regained some of his loquaciousness and had regaled them with information about their settlement. He was especially proud of their temple which was made of stone brought in from almost 100 miles away and which was graced by Enki's presence during his annual visits. Even the Headman himself had actually managed to inform them a little about the mysterious visitors the team was trying to find out about though any information divulged had seemed to be entirely unintentional. The "armored soldiers" which was how the Headman referred to the robots had indeed been accompanied by some clearly non-mechanical people. One was a man in silver armor who wore a finely sculpted mask and did most of the talking, and the other was a figure with sickly grey skin, partial armor that also covered his face, and brightly colored clothing. Apparently the headman considered the second figure to be a noble of some sort since he seemed to give the orders and he was accompanied everywhere by his pet, an apparently rather ugly, wrinkled, brown insect creature of large size. Overall not very informative beyond the fact that they were clearly not human and seemed to have a thing for armor-like clothing.

Beyond these tidbits the Headman had yet to say anything of importance preferring instead to repeatedly talk about how important he was, and how much he and his people could bring to an alliance with the Tau'ri without actually mentioning anything specific. Even his own subordinates seemed to have had enough of him. The official who had escorted them into town had rapidly made his exit shortly after their arrival speaking of urgent matters to attend to regarding irrigation issues. Even Dagir who had managed to be just as impassive as Styles for most of the exchange was beginning to look a bit antsy with repeated glances towards the door to the ornately carved room or out the window which provided a panoramic view of the temple district of the town. Stuart suspected he was trying to come up with a reason to be allowed to leave and he really wished he was at liberty to come up with an excuse for himself as well. He knew negotiations here were important but if this went on much longer he was going to be tempted to see if the other two excluded soldiers had packed some cards or something, diplomatic regulations and basic politeness be damned.

As the Headman entered into yet another long winded tangent that they could only understand about half of due to their limited expertise in the Goa'uld language in response to yet another question from Captain Styles asking just what exactly the visitors even called themselves, Stuart was surprised by a rather loud and obnoxious throat clearing coming from the rear of the room. He was even more surprised when he identified its source; Dagir their military escort.

The Headman's speech quickly wound down as he gave a venomous look to the military man. Stuart assumed he was about to make his excuse to get out of this room now and he was really wishing he could join him.

"Look sir," Dagir began in response to the pointed look, "I know that delicate negotiations like this can take a while and can't be rushed," Stuart could hear the insincerity dripping from the words. "Still it seems as though you won't be needing all of our new guests at this stage of the talks. I was thinking of allowing their experts to do their jobs in the name of efficiency sir."

"That is most irregular," the Headman replied while nervously fiddling with his brooch of office that held his robes in place which was even larger and more ornate than the one worn by the official who had escorted the team in. "Splitting up a delegation might under less calm circumstances be regarded as an act showing we have no trust in them. I know our recent guests refused even to have separate quarters offered to them…in addition to other eccentricities."

"True, but if they are willing I was going to suggest we let some of them examine those quarters, they seem to be interested in places the Confederates passed." Stuart perked up at this, finally they had a name to give the mystery visitors, though Confederates was just the best approximation of the Goa'uld term Dagir had used. The actual term had directly translated as something akin to members of a loose alliance of many kings and he could have chosen coalition or alliance group as the word to represent it, translation was never an exact process.

"How far is this place?" Styles asked. The Headman's face fell almost comically as the captain seemed to give serious weight to considering Dagir's suggestion.

"It's just a few streets over near the edge of the temple district. If the negotiations require it would only take a few minutes to get word there."

"But surely our visitors would not want to be out of contact with each other in a strange city? I want them to feel completely comfortable while they remain guests of our hospitality." the Headman said.

Styles smiled at this. "Don't worry, we have was of staying in touch if an emergency pops up. Besides I hate to have my guys sitting around while we do the heavy lifting here."

"Well if you insist on this," the Headman said seemingly deflating as he looked between Dagir and Styles. "But I must insist you keep an eye on them. If they get lost or something happens I'm holding you directly responsible Dagir."

"I know what is expected of me," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Good," Styles added, "with that out of the way Miller and Lopez check out our mystery people's lodgings and report on what you find. The Headman and I will continue our scintillating conversation." This last bit was in English since even the densest person could have detected the sarcasm in the captain's voice.

As Stuart and Lopez stood to follow Dagir out the crestfallen look on Kirkwall's face was almost funny. He mouthed "take me with you" as they passed by, but Stuart could only shrug in response while quietly being glad that he would not have to spend any more time in the Headman's long-winded presence.

Dagir set a quick a pace as they strode out of the Headman's surprisingly small home and workplace, though considering the typical attitude of the Goa'uld a modest dwelling would not be so out of the ordinary no matter how important he considered himself. After all one wouldn't want the local humans to start thinking they were anything more than servants at best.

The streets were extremely crowded which was compounded by the fact that all of them aside from the ceremonial procession way that ran from the gates to the base of the ziggurat were also extremely narrow; the smallest of them were barely large enough to allow three people to walk abreast. However the crowds readily made way upon seeing Dagir and the two outsiders with him though Stuart could not help but notice the occasional glances of fear directed them as they passed. However the majority of the people seemed to give way without even really seeming to notice; it spoke of a populace that had thoroughly internalized the hierarchy of power to the extent that they deferred to symbols of power like soldiers unconsciously. Really it was a bit depressing if the control exerted by the Goa'ulds' system of power was so deeply entrenched.

It took him longer than it should have, but he began to get suspicious when their winding course did not take them to the supposedly nearby structure they were ostensibly traveling to. It was hard to tell between the towering closely packed buildings and the seemingly random path they were taking but upon crossing a wider main street and getting a glimpse of the temple that marked the center of the town Stuart was certain; they were heading away from where they were supposed to go, moving outwards towards the edge of the settlement. He was about to speak up and ask what was going on when Lopez stepped close and hoarsely whispered to him.

"Something's up," she said.

"I know," he replied, "We're going the wrong way."

She nodded at this. "The path he's taking is clearly to throw off pursuit. He's also been signaling small groups of people at the last two intersections as well."

Stuart had not noticed that at all, but it seemed clear that Dagir was up to something and that he did not want the Headman to know about it. There were any number of possibilities and none of them were good.

"Think he's with the Goa'uld?" he asked with a touch of worry entering his voice.

"Let's find out," she replied. "Around this next corner I'm going to try and get some answers. Back me up when the time comes."

Although it was only about 100 feet until that point the tension in Stuart made it seem like hours before Dagir passed around the corner of the narrow alley-like street. Fortunately as they had moved away from the center of town the crowds had thinned out significantly so no one was there to spot as Lopez readied her weapon while the local military man was out of sight and stepped around the corner. Stuart fumbled for his and followed her to find her staring down Dagir along the barrel of her gun as the man awkwardly held his sword halfway drawn from its sheath. Stuart was somewhat bemused to note as he finally got his own weapon free that the local's sword was not even iron, it appeared to be made of bronze which made the mismatch in armament in this standoff reach a level of absurdity that was ridiculous.

"I should have expected you would figure out something was up; I didn't have time to come up with a better plan," he said seemingly unconcerned that he had been caught taking them to who knew where or that a deadly weapon was pointed at his face.

"How about you tell us just what you think you're doing before I have Miller here call up the captain and your boss and tell them all about your little unplanned tour." Her eyes were hard and focused on Dagir. Lopez may not have been a frontline soldier but clearly she was not one to be trifled with.

"You really don't want to do that," he answered. Dagir slowly sheathed his sword and started to reach for something tucked into his belt.

Lopez gestured with her gun and said, "You may not have seen this in action but you're not stupid. I think you can recognize a weapon when you see one and know when someone is not bluffing. Give us some answers and don't try anything or you'll get to see if your snaky masters really are gods or not."

Dagir rolled his eyes at this, "You're right to be suspicious but you're looking in the wrong place for betrayal. I'm simply trying to show you something I recovered from the Headman's office, I think that will give you some enlightenment."

"Fine," Lopez said allowing the local to slowly pull an object from where it was tucked into his belt and hand it over to Stuart.

Upon superficial examination it seemed to be a duplicate of the brooch of office that all the important officials in this town wore except this one appeared to have been stepped on repeatedly for some reason; it was partially crushed with its central jewel clearly broken. However the interior of the object was not what he expected at all. Aside from the fact that the heavy brass and gold object was mostly hollow it was the wires and broken control crystal inside it and the cracked jewel that was revealed to be some sort of lens that really showed that it was not what it seemed. The crystal showed the hallmarks of System Lord technology and there were only so many things a lens could be used for.

"Is this some sort of Goa'uld camera?" Stuart asked throwing out a guess as to what the object might be.

"I'm not sure what a camera is, but what the Headman and his followers see Enki knows due to these," Dagir answered before Lopez could get a look at the device. "Don't worry," he continued when Stuart made like he was going to hurl it away, "The Confederates confirmed that I disabled this one."

"This means nothing," Lopez said. "You can say any number of things but for all we know you're just making stuff up to cover for being discovered."

Dagir's hand almost started to move towards his face before he stopped himself, most likely remembering that he had a weapon trained on him. "If I was planning on betraying or killing you I could have done it any number of times during this journey. I may not have access to the divine fire, or whatever those things are," at this he made a small gesture that encompassed the guns, "but we do have bows. Had I wanted to we could have filled you with arrows in plenty of places along the route."

"That's not really helping your case any," Stuart said.

"Fine, it's obvious you don't trust me, but you shouldn't trust the Headman either, he's the one who pulls the strings here. Perhaps a third party might convince you of my sincerity?"

"Who could you possibly have here that would count as a neutral party?" Lopez asked incredulously. "Anyone from around here could just be working with you."

"How about a Confederate survivor?" Dagir asked. "I was taking you to him without the Headman's knowledge when you spotted my deception."

Stuart and Lopez exchanged a quick glance at this news. While a survivor from the previous group of strangers would not only be able to tell the truth of Dagir's assertions and help greatly in the team completing their mission, there was a rather large problem with the concept that was glaringly obvious to them both.

"Yeah, that might help you case some," Stuart said, "However there's just a tiny little hole in the logic of that."

"The Jaffa had complete control of the battle site for as long as they wanted," Lopez cut in. "You want to tell me that they not only somehow missed a survivor while they were combing the battlefield and probably carting away prisoners but also that you got yours back into town with no one noticing. That's probably the most ridiculous thing I've heard."

"Perhaps survivor is a bit of a strong word. The _person_," Stuart could hear confusion with regards to the use of this word, "is not exactly normal." Clearly Dagir was getting frustrated.

"Look," he continued, "We're almost there, it's that building just ahead." He pointed to a slightly larger than average structure that was less than a block away and hard up against the outer wall of the town. "Just hear me out there; you can see if I'm lying or not and if it's a trap I'm sure you can kill me before anything happens."

Lopez sent a questioning glance at Stuart who responded with a fractional shrug; he was not the military guy here. He could think of good reasons to immediately call this in and report back to the captain, but he could also see that Dagir's story could also be true as well. It was clear that she was having similar thoughts as well since it was a rather long pause before she responded to the local's offer.

"We'll come along," was her response. She tapped her radio with her elbow, "However if you try something we can warn our commander that something's up quicker than you can stop us; so don't think you can get away with anything." Stuart was not sure if she was bluffing or not, but he knew Dagir certainly couldn't know either.

The local nodded at this. "A sensible precaution. Follow me, we've already spent too long with the Headman; we should try to finish this quickly."

The rest of the journey passed quickly if extremely tensely due to the readied weapons pointed at Dagir's back. From the outside the building they approached looked similar to any number of other structures in the town if slightly larger than average. It stood four stories tall, the extra floor enabling it to overlook the squat wall that surrounded the settlement. It had few windows, and those that it did have were narrow and on the upper two floors. The wide double doors of the building were tightly shut and Stuart could see that a pair of men in scruffy looking clothing were seemingly guarding the entrance while doing a poor job of attempting to look like they had simply chosen this location to loiter at.

Their attempt at nonchalance took another major hit as the three approached the entrance to the building with Dagir clearly being under duress. They straightened up and began reaching for weapons concealed beneath their ratty cloaks causing Stuart to turn his gun towards them in warning.

"No need for that boys," Dagir said quickly. "Our new friends were just a bit more observant than out last guests is all."

The two men backed down hesitantly. "You sure about this boss?" one of them asked.

"As sure as I can be about anything these days. We all knew there'd be no instructions for what we're doing when we started it."

"That there isn't," the other one said shaking his head slowly. "Should we come in with you, I assume they're here for it?"

"No, it was hard enough convincing them to come when they had complete control of the situation. They really need to talk to our guest in there so you two keep watch out here."

At this the guards slid open the door leading into the building and Dagir gestured for Stuart and Lopez to enter. When he saw that they were following he walked deeper into the darkened interior of the structure.

The interior of building seemed to be devoted primarily to storage; the lower two stories were a large room with narrow shelves filling most of the space. On the shelves, along the walls, and in most of the available floor space were a large number of almost man sized ceramic vases or pots, all of them sealed with wax stoppers that had the contents of the containers marked in them with finely incised local script. The room itself, when the front door was slid shut was lit by only a few widely scattered oil lamps. Dagir led them through the large storage room towards a narrow staircase that allowed access to the upper levels.

"A word of warning," their guide said as they began to take the stairs, "the survivor we picked up is a little bit odd."

"Odd how?" Stuart asked.

"He's not entirely human for one; you'll see what I mean in a moment. But he's also a bit strange in the head too. Again, it's not easy to explain."

With these fairly cryptic words they reached a landing on the stairs where there was a door that entered the third floor of the structure. Dagir knocked twice on it and then entered into a much more brightly lit room as Stuart was left blinking while his eyes adjusted to the increased light level.

"Ah Master Dagir you have returned," a rather soft and cheery voice said from within the room. It was speaking the Goa'uld language like most people on this world did but its accent was rather unique. Unlike the rather coarse and clipped version Dagir spoke or the flowery and overcomplicated version favored by the Headman and his representative, this speaker immediately brought the image to Stuart's mind of an academic of all things. This was quite a trick he mused, considering it was only one sentence and he did not even know if the speakers of Goa'uld even had academics. Perhaps the speaker had a special gift.

"Ah," the unseen speaker continued, "I see you have brought company this fine day. I do hope they will be better conversationalists than the last group, though I suppose I cannot be choosey with my situation being as it is. I would stand to greet you but as you may see I am a bit indisposed at the moment."

Stuart's eyes finally adjusted to the bright light coming in the windows and allowed him to see the room and the speaker within it. The room itself was fairly unremarkable, it seemed to have been an office of some sort that had been hurriedly altered into a makeshift living quarters by the addition of a few additional pieces of furniture and the hasty shoving aside of the room's previous contents.

The speaker on the other hand was another matter entirely. At first Stuart thought that the gleaming silvery metallic figure was merely seated in the large chair he was located in, but a better look revealed that most of the human shaped being was simply not there to begin with. Aside from the right arm, head, and top two-thirds of a torso the rest of the speaker was absent. Clearly this was the man in silver armor the Headman had mentioned before; his face was even hidden by a well-made silver mask that displayed a carefully neutral expression. Or, on closer examination, the mask was revealed to be the speaker's face, since the wires, rods, and other mechanical components trailing from the lower torso and missing arm betrayed the speaker's true nature.

"Are any of these guys not robots?" Stuart asked rhetorically in English upon making this discovery. Lopez said nothing, choosing instead to approach the stricken machine to get a better look at it as it regarded the two newcomers.

"I'm sorry I do not believe I know that language sir," the machine said. "This is most embarrassing." It seemed genuinely upset when it said this.

"Wait a second," Lopez said at this, briefly pausing her examination of the robot and focusing on one specific part of its statement, "You have emotions? You can actually feel embarrassed?"

"Certainly, I would be unable to carry out my duties if I were unable to empathize with others. A rich emotional experience is required to form the basis of mutual understanding and communication." This last part sounded well-rehearsed, almost as if it were reading off of a script.

Stuart felt that things were beginning to get out of control rather rapidly. He put aside more metaphysical concerns about what the experience of being a robot would be like, and even less abstract ones about the level of technology needed to make such a device in order to focus on the basics.

"Never mind that right now," he said trying to focus, "Who are you?" Lopez seemed willing to let him take the lead on this; she kneeled down to get a closer look at the robot's exposed mechanisms. Dagir was leaning against the rear wall of the room with a bemused smirk on his face.

For its part the machine seemed unconcerned with Lopez's scrutiny. "I apologize sir, most profusely. I am G3-N0," at least this was how Stuart translated the sounds and numbers the machine used to designate itself, "Primary diplomatic unit attached to the second extra-galactic Confederate survey team. May I ask who I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"I'm Stuart Miller and that's Lieutenant Serena Lopez," he decided there was no real downside to identifying themselves to the machine, it was unlikely to do something terrible to either them or Earth considering the position it was in. "We're half of SG-14 from Earth. If you've been talking to any of the people around here you might also know of us as the Tau'ri."

"Splendid," it said with remarkable enthusiasm, "We have heard much of the Tau'ri and were hoping some day to make contact. I am not sure if you are aware of this," at this the machine leaned slightly towards Stuart and lowered its voice, "But the current leaders of this galaxy are a most unreasonable bunch. Rumor has it you are considerably more likely to behave in a civilized fashion."

"That's true," Lopez said from where she as next to the machine, "Though to be fair some rampaging barbarians are more civilized than the snakes."

"You will get no argument from me," the machine said. "Honestly who opens fire at a diplomatic team during first contact? Not to mention what happened to me personally. I do not think even during the war was a negotiator treated so poorly. Why in reasonable company…"

Stuart suspected that if allowed the machine (he was going to have to come up with a better way of thinking of it than "machine" or its designation which he couldn't be sure was an accurate translation anyway) were allowed to it would continue in this vein for a while. It was clear that it had been designed to appear non-threatening in both appearance and demeanor but a little bit of its personality went a long way.

"So," Stuart began and was happy to hear the machine (maybe give it a nickname of some sort) stop it's tirade against the Goa'uld, "Who exactly are you guys? We've heard about you too; that's kind of the reason why we're here."

"We are serving as representatives of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a coalition of worlds and organizations that have banded together in mutual benefit and defense against external threats. Recently our long range wormhole experiments bore success and allowed us access to the Chappa'ai network within this galaxy. Over the half year since then we have been seeking out diplomatic and trade opportunities here; though we have not had much luck."

"You're from another galaxy?" Stuart asked incredulously. This was really big, if Earth could get help from another group of similar power to the Goa'uld that could solve the security issues that had caused the formation of the SGC in the first place. "How big are you, do you control many worlds?"

"Well," the robot (that's it he was getting a nickname) said, "Our civilization covers the entire galactic disk, though the Confederacy is only about a third of that." It seemed hesitant in saying this, though Stuart was focused on the size the machine had mentioned. A truly galactic scaled civilization would certainly be a match for the Goa'uld, though that could also cause a few inadvertent problems just from the mismatch in civilization size even if they were completely benign.

"How many ships do you have Geno?" Lopez asked. Apparently she also felt the need to come up with an actual name for the robot as well. And Geno was as good of a nickname as any. "Are they likely to respond to the attack on your team?"

If Geno was upset at having been given a new name it was not showing it. "While we do have an extensive fleet, at the present moment our sole access to your galaxy is by Chappa'ai. From what I understand our engineers are working on a better connection but that will take some time."

So no avenging spaceships would be flying in to sweep the Goa'uld aside anytime soon. Stuart had suspected that something like that was going to be the case. Still, they had rather more immediate concerns as the presence of the deceptively calm Dagir proved. They still did not know the specifics behind how Geno had ended up in this position and if the Headman was truly working with Enki they needed to know quickly.

"Speaking of you team," Stuart said, "What exactly happened to it? We saw the ambush site on the way in, but we've been getting some conflicting stories about what actually happened."

"Well, there is not too much for me to say. It started well enough, just like the other diplomatic missions I have had the privilege to go on. Though the Headman of this settlement was being remarkably obtuse; I do believe I had to explain even the most basic information to him multiple times before it finally sank in."

"After almost seven days of this even Master Taguk was losing his patience and I have never seen that happen before even though he was willing to continue the mission. Finally Lord Zalys came to the conclusion that we were being stalled for some reason and ordered us out. Unfortunately he was right; we had only just left sight of the town when we came under attack."

This statement contained an interesting nugget of information for Stuart. Apparently the Headman had inadvertently been right about there being two leaders of the Confederate team; while one of the ones he had identified had been Geno, presumably the one he had seen as a pet had actually been another alien.

Geno continued his story. "I am not programmed for military matters so I cannot tell you with any accuracy what actually happened during the fighting. Needless to say it was most unpleasant, our escort was wiped out quite quickly and I was hit as you can see. The enemy, who I presume were Enki's Jaffa as he rules this world, took Taguk and Zalys captive by using a device to incapacitate them."

"I was ignored along with our destroyed escort, few people care what happens to us machines no matter what galaxy we are in. I was there for two days before Master Dagir there came onto the battlefield and found me. After a brief conversation he returned me to the settlement and we decided to attempt to find some friendly forces to contact, though your timely arrival seems to have preempted that plan."

"How so?" Stuart asked.

"Well now that we have an unaligned third party you can take me back to one of our outposts. There I can convey my information on what happened so a retaliatory strike can be planned and you can make contact with us formally."

"And that way we don't need to waste any more time with the Headman here or risk letting Enki find us." Stuart said.

"Good," Dagir said, finally speaking after his long silence, "I don't know how far away Enki's forces may have gone after attacking the Confederates but the sooner we get a plan to get him," he gestured at Geno, "out of here and find an excuse for you to leave the better. Just remember when you go that not everyone here is happy with Enki's rule."

Stuart was about to make a suggestion as to how they would get this information to Captain Styles without tipping their hand to the Headman when his train of thought was abruptly derailed by an insistent electrical beeping. It was coming from some of the equipment Lopez had been checking when they first came through the stargate and the worried look she gave when she examined it filled Stuart with dread.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Something's tripped the motion sensors I placed around the gate."

"An animal?"

"All of them are being tripped, I think we have company." With this she readied her radio.

"Captain, this is Lopez, we have an urgent situation."

There was a short delay before the captain's voice responded over the radio with a burst of static. "_What's the situation_?"

"We have multiple unknowns around the gate. The numbers make it unlikely to be non-hostile. I recommend we bug out for now and seek shelter."

"_Good thinking Lieutenant_." Stuart could hear in the background Kirkwall making a remarkably insincere apology to the Headman that they would have to be leaving now. "_We'll rendezvous near the mill and use the ridgeline to…what?_"

This last word was suddenly shouted as they could hear a brief burst of automatic gunfire presumably from Kirkwall. Interspersed behind that was an electronic sizzling sound that for a moment completely threw Stuart for a loop until he suddenly remembered the training he had been given before they had even been allowed off world. It was the sound of several zats firing; someone was attacking the other two members of the team.

At the sound of this Dagir dashed to the window with a panicked look on his face to look outside. After a couple of shots the radio abruptly cut out leaving nothing but static.

"Shit," Lopez cursed. "It sounds like Enki left some guys behind. Let's get over there right now and try to salvage this. You, Dagir, how do we get back there as quickly as possible?"

"You don't," he said heavily. "Enki didn't leave anyone behind; he's back"

"What?" Lopez said as she and Stuart moved over to the windows.

The sight he saw would under other circumstances have been rather impressive, but with things the way they were right now it filled him with nothing but dread. Hovering over the city center was one of the plated, somewhat bulbous Al'kesh craft. The manner in which it hovered over the town while being far larger than any of the buildings within it radiated a fundamental feeling of wrongness.

A few moments after having spotted it Stuart could see motion along the underside of the craft; something was rotating there. Abruptly a pair of brilliant energy blasts lanced out from the gun emplaced there towards another structure in the center of the city. The building was consumed in a large fireball which seriously damaged several other structures nearby but did not seem to start any blazes.

"What the hell was that?" Stuart asked. "What are they shooting at?"

"I think that's where I said I was taking you," Dagir said quietly.

"So what, we're not worth the trouble of capture or something?"

"Probably," Lopez responded. "They already have two prisoners and they couldn't risk us getting away. They may have recognized the radio when the captain was using it and realized we knew something was up."

"But that isn't important. We need to get out of town and get word back to Earth. The two of us aren't going to be enough to get the captain and Kirkwall back, we're going to need reinforcements."

"I hope you have a lot of friends, since those aren't the only servants Enki brought with him," Dagir said as he gazed out the window.

Stuart quickly looked around to see what the local meant but it did not take long to see what he was referring to. Descending through the scattered clouds towards the larger bare mountain they had seen on the way into town was a Ha'tak mother ship. It seemed Enki felt this was a situation that required his person touch. It was looking like his first mission through the stargate was also going to be Stuart's last.

**Author's Note: **Languages in science fiction are a funny thing. I assumed that in Stargate everyone is speaking in Goa'uld and in the show they just use English for the viewer's convenience rather like how in the Hunt for Red October movie all the Russians started speaking English after a couple of scenes. Of course droid names are still a big problem; for example what is R2-D2's real name since the Star Wars universe doesn't even use an alphabet with R's or D's in it? For the droid here I just assumed he introduced himself as "whatever Goa'uld symbol sounds like a hard G sound, 3, Goa'uld symbol for N sound, 0". You can see why Stuart and Lopez feel he needs a nickname.


End file.
